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In  making  available  the generalized terminal descriptions in ,
much information was made available to the programmer, but little
work  was  taken out of one’s hands.  The purpose of this package
is to allow the C programmer to do the most common type of terminal dependent functions, those of movement optimization and opti‐
mal screen updating, without doing any of  the	dirty  work,  and
with  nearly as much ease as is necessary to simply print or read
things.	 In this document, the following terminology is used:

An internal representation containing an image of what a  section
     of	 the terminal screen may look like at some point in time.
     This subsection can either	 encompass  the	 entire	 terminal
     screen,  or  any  smaller portion down to a single character
     within that screen.

Sometimes called The package’s idea of what the terminal’s screen
     currently	looks  like,  what  the user sees now.	This is a
     special

This is a subset of windows which are as large	as  the	 terminal
     screen,  they start at the upper left hand corner and encom‐
     pass the lower right hand corner.	One of these, is automat‐
     ically provided for the programmer.  In order to use the li‐
     brary, it is necessary to have certain types  and	variables
     defined.  Therefore, the programmer must have a line: at the
     top of the program source.	  Compilations	should	have  the
     following	form: cc [ flags ] file ... −lcurses −ltermcap In
     order to update the screen optimally, it  is  necessary  for
     the  routines  to	know what the screen currently looks like
     and what the programmer wants it to  look	like  next.   For
     this purpose, a data type (structure) named is defined which
     describes a window image  to  the	routines,  including  its
     starting position on the screen (the  of the upper left hand
     corner) and its size.  One of these (called for is a  screen
     image  of	what  the terminal currently looks like.  Another
     screen (called for is provided by default	to  make  changes
     on.   A  window  is a purely internal representation.  It is
     used to build and store a potential image of  a  portion  of
     the  terminal.   It  doesn’t  bear any necessary relation to
     what is really on the terminal screen.  It is more	 like  an
     array  of characters on which to make changes.  When one has
     a window which describes what some part the terminal  should
     look  like,  the routine (or if the window is not is called.
     makes the terminal, in the area covered by the window,  look
     like  that window.	 Note, therefore, that changing something
     on a window Actual updates to the terminal screen	are  made
     only  by  calling	or This allows the programmer to maintain
     several different ideas of what a portion	of  the	 terminal
     screen  should look like.	Also, changes can be made to win‐
     dows in any order,	 without  regard  to  motion  efficiency.
     Then,  at	will,  the programmer can effectively say and the
     package will execute the changes  in  an  optimal	way.   As
     hinted  above, the routines can use several windows, but two
     are always available: which is the image of what the  termi‐
     nal  looks	 like  at present, and which is the image of what
     the programmer wants the terminal to look	like  next.   The
     user  should not access directly.	Changes should be made to
     the appropriate screen, and then the routine (or  should  be
     called.  Many functions are set up to deal with as a default
     screen.  For example, to add a character to one  calls  with
     the desired character.  If a different window is to be used,
     the routine (for is provided.

     Actually, is really a macro with arguments, as are	 most  of
     the "functions" which act upon This convention of prepending
     function names with a when they are to be applied to specif‐
     ic	 windows  is  consistent.   The only routines which do do
     this are those to which a window must always  be  specified.
     In order to move the current  from one point to another, the
     routines and are provided.	 However, it is	 often	desirable
     to first move and then perform some I/O operation.	 In order
     to avoid clumsiness, most I/O routines can	 be  preceded  by
     the  prefix  and the desired  can then be added to the argu‐
     ments to the function.  For example, the calls move(yx); ad‐
     dch(ch); can be replaced by mvaddch(yxch); and wmove(winyx);
     waddch(winch); can be replaced  by	 mvwaddch(winyxch);  Note
     that the window description pointer comes before the added .
     If a window pointer is needed, it is always the first param‐
     eter passed.

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